


Marks On Your Soul

by KyeAbove



Series: The Reinforcement Of Agony AU [90]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 08:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13431111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyeAbove/pseuds/KyeAbove
Summary: Timmy recognizes many of the other Searchers as co-workers, friends, and family, but it’s never a good thing for him.





	Marks On Your Soul

~Unknown, 1963~

* * *

  
The Studio was a different place when one could walk from floor to floor. Timmy found it almost therapeutic. Being an ink creature himself, most of the others he encountered in the studio left him alone. That was why he was the best to send on supply runs. Henry was sure Timmy really only had to worry about an encounter with the Ink Demon, or ‘Alice’, or the Projectionist, if he was unlucky. Henry didn't know of any other other people in the Studio that had enough lucidity to be dangerous, or lucid enough at all.

Timmy knew there were. Timmy knew the Swollen Searchers thought. He passed by them, nodded at them, and they nodded back. Swollen Searchers tended to be...less ‘refined’, in a way. More lucidity in turn for more suffering. Timmy couldn't always put names to them, but he knew one of them was named Lucy, and she had a young son out of wedlock. That boy probably grew up wondering why his mother had abandoned him.

A lot of them had families before all this. Timmy hadn’t. Not his biological family, that is. Timmy only had Vernon, Ollie, and Bette, after Henry left.

But he hadn’t seen much of Bette after she got married. Even when they worked at the same place, she was always busy refining her skills in between playing the music. Or, as she once proudly proclaimed, she was one of those making sure Sammy didn't starve to death while working so hard on his music.

Tim had seen Bette a few times now. She usually hung around the music department. She had always followed after the Prophet, like many Searchers who'd been a part of the sound and music departments. Now, with Sammy back in his right enough mind, and out of the ink, he'd now only seen her move and attack meaninglessly.

Many times now, he considered grabbing her. Considered taking her back to the safehouse. Seeing if there was anything Henry could do for her. Henry had pulled Timmy away from the ink. Couldn't he do it for Bette? Maybe Henry couldn't fix her mind, but Timmy would still rather she be safe somehow.

No doubt Henry would try to save anyone Timmy asked him to. It was why Timmy avoided mentioning identities when he recognized them. Sending Henry on a guilt trip would do no good.

Timmy almost broke once, when he saw a Searcher about to attack Henry was Emil. But Timmy held his wordless pleading, even though it hurt to see Emil once again spill into ink.

Henry was the key. Henry would be the one to save them all. But Henry needed a clear enough head. No misplaced pity. Just because these were their friends and their found family, it shouldn't stop Henry. They would kill Henry in a heartbeat.

So, when Timmy came across a particular other Searcher, identical as the others to anyone who hadn't been living like this for almost three decades, he was glad he was alone.

The Searcher snuffled, growling animalistically at a spider crawling across the wooden floor, paying no attention to Timmy.

Tim would have walked on by, had he not known exactly who that Searcher was.

 _'Hello, Vernon.’_ Timmy thought to himself. _‘It’s me, Timmy. Haven’t see you in awhile.’_ That thought translated out only as a garbled sound, just like all of Timmy’s other attempts to speak.

The sound made Vernon turn a little, but sensing only another Searcher, Vernon went back to chasing after the spider.

Tim’s heart broke every time he saw Vernon, and his heart was just some inky mass now. It still hurt. It always would.

 _'Henry's back. Sammy's human again and he was ink like us! There’s hope. I really can’t wait until the day…’_ Timmy stopped. He was going to start crying if he kept this up. But maybe he needed to cry. Some tears had fallen, and he’d felt just a bit better. _‘...until the day you remember me. If that day ever comes.’_

Timmy couldn't stop himself from crying after that. He sobbed as he raced over and pulled the inky remains of the only man he’d ever loved into a hug.

Vernon made a confused sound, and then started thrashing around, attempting to escape Timmy’s grasp. But Timmy didn't want to ever let go.

They’d been consumed by the ink, clutching onto each other, and Timmy wanted to remember that, and not everything that came after.

_'I still love you. Even after all this time.’_

But those words only came out as another sob.


End file.
